<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/26/world/middleeast/26mideast.html> September 26, 2006 Israeli Premier and Saudi Said to Hold Secret Meeting By GREG MYRE
JERUSALEM, Sept. 25 — An Israeli newspaper reported Monday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held a secret meeting about 10 days ago with a senior Saudi Arabian official to discuss issues that included Iran's nuclear program and prospects for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
In response to the reports, Mr. Olmert and his aides said he did not meet with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. However, they declined to answer directly when asked if he met with any other senior Saudi leader.
"I did not meet with the Saudi king and I did not meet with anyone who should cause a sensation in the media," Mr. Olmert was quoted as saying on Ynetnews.com, a Web site affiliated with Yediot Aharonot, the Israeli newspaper that first carried the story.
If a meeting did take place, it would indicate a significant development for two countries that have never had diplomatic ties. Officials from Israel and Saudi Arabia have quietly shared intelligence information, but have never met publicly, said David Kimche, chief of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations.
Both countries are concerned about Iran and its nuclear program, and — with a majority of Saudi Arabia's Muslims being Sunnis — are also concerned about links between Shiite Muslim groups stretching from Iran to Lebanon, he said.
Yediot Aharonot, citing unidentified government officials, said Mr. Olmert's meeting took place with an unidentified official who is close to the Saudi king. It did not say where the talks took place.
Later Monday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on its Web site that there might have been a meeting between one of Mr. Olmert's envoys and a Saudi official in a third country.
In Saudi Arabia, there was no official comment.
In recent weeks, Saudi Arabia has sought to revive a 2002 peace initiative that calls on Arab countries to normalize ties with Israel in exchange for the creation of a Palestinian state along Israel's pre-1967 war borders. Israel has rejected the plan, though Mr. Olmert praised King Abdullah when discussing the proposal.
Israel has full diplomatic relations with just two Arab countries, Egypt and Jordan. There have been lower-level ties with other states, though many of those dealings have been frozen during the Israeli-Palestinian fighting over the past six years. Saudi Arabia is among many Arab countries that have never had official ties with Israel, and even the suggestion of an informal contact is considered an extremely delicate matter.
"If there was a meeting, and I believe there was, the Saudis obviously thought it would be very discreet," Mr. Kimche said. "I'm sure they are shocked this has come out."
In July, when the Lebanese group Hezbollah staged a cross-border raid, igniting a one-month war with Israel, Saudi Arabia was among several Arab nations that initially criticized Hezbollah. It later criticized Israel for its intense bombardment of Lebanon, which resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths.
Still, the Israeli prime minister told Ynetnews.com that Saudi Arabia showed "responsibility and judgment" during the war.
Yediot Aharonot reported last week that Saudi Arabia and Israel began holding discussions during the fighting this summer. In an interview with Mr. Olmert last week, the newspaper asked him whether there had been contacts. "I do not have to answer every question," Mr. Olmert replied. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>